The First Few Days

DAY 1:

After leaving our home of our whole lives, we said goodbye to our families and jet-setted off into the unknown. The travel was long and a lot harder for Brigitte and I since we thought it would be a good idea to not sleep the day before... not one of our best ideas. We arrived in Kristianstad (pronounced something like Kkwanstad by the locals, we’re still trying to get that down) at around noon. We noticed right away that the current climate is warmer than ND, there was no snow on the ground and everything is green and slightly damp. We were then shown around our on-campus international apartments. The apartments have their own bathroom, kitchenette, beds, and a table.  Our apartments are in two different buildings but it’s only about a 5 minute walk.  Kari and I’s apartment is larger and less smelly. There are little “pain in the ass” tributes to them, for example: no microwave, no toaster, no outlets in the bathroom, no space in the bathroom and a burnt out light bulb. But it’s still nicer than we expected. The worst part was the internet has no connection in our building. This is by far the hardest part since this means no talking to our family or friends. I do have letters from Calli and Jenna that I reread when I’m missing them or feeling down.

Then we cleaned up a little, unpacked then walked off campus to a store similar to a Walmart, but smaller and slightly shitty. The shittier part was not having any plastic bags because apparently in Europe you have to buy them, which we didn’t know until after we checked out then we had to stuff our purses and backpacks full of our purchases, making our journey home not enjoyable. After this trip, we walked to the grocery store which is in the same area as the all-purpose store and got frozen pizzas since no restaurants were open or in the area. We turned in at around 8:30 PM because we were exhausted, we got a full night of sleep and started the day early at 8:00 AM.

DAY 2:

Apparently I snore now? Fabulous. Well, Mariah and Brigitte came over in the morning then we headed to the grocery store to stock up (this time we came prepared with plastic bags). WEIRD THING ALERT: food in tubes. Walls of it; mayonnaise, cheese, fish, bacon… you name it. BACON? In a tube, gross…. I want one. We made some grilled cheese sandwiches, then we had true intentions to walk into the city Centrum (around a 45 minute walk) to get our bikes and phones…… instead we went on the internet at Mariah and Brigitte’s apartment then took a nap. Oops, productivity at its finest. Kari and I failed at making spaghetti then we heard a faint knock on the door. Michele and Alejandro were bored and desperate to make some friends. We invited the two men in (while Kari frantically threw her undergarments behind her bed) and had casual talk with them about their home countries of Italy and Holland. Mariah took one for the team and asked where Holland was, which made both of them laugh. We made plans to meet up with them tomorrow and watch a movie. YAYYYYYYY FRIENDSSSSSSSSSSSS.

-Shanda